Costa Rica in 2014

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The election of dark-horse candidate Luis Guillermo Solís of the Citizens’ Action Party (PAC) as president of Costa Rica in April 2014 gave the PAC its first presidential victory over the country’s two leading political parties—the National Liberation Party (PLN) and the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC). Not only did Solís win, but his commanding lead in a popularity poll that preceded the second round of voting also prompted his runoff opponent, Johnny Araya of the PLN, to withdraw from the contest. The PAC won only 13 of the 57 available legislative seats but was able to form a ruling coalition.

Araya, the former longtime mayor of San José and the leading contender to replace the deeply unpopular incumbent, Laura Chinchilla, had looked to be a likely first-round victor after his principal rival, PUSC’s Rodolfo Hernández, dropped out of the competition suddenly in October 2013. That left Araya, whose party had won the two previous presidential elections, opposed only by candidates from newer parties that had yet to win the presidency, notably José María Villalta of the leftist Broad Front (FA) and Otto Guevara of the Libertarian Movement (ML), who was making his fourth bid for the presidency. Solís, an academic and diplomat who had never held elective office, stood a distant fourth in the opinion polling right up to the 11th hour, even though his party, the PAC—which had broken away from the PLN—had come within 1.1% of winning the presidency in 2006.

In voting on Feb. 2, 2014, Solís narrowly edged out Araya (30.6% to 29.7%) but failed to clear the 40% threshold necessary for a first-round victory. After an opinion poll released in early March showed Solís with an unexpected lead of more than 40%, Araya ended his candidacy. Although Araya’s name remained on the ballot, Solís, who had campaigned on a platform of combating corruption and reducing inequality, effectively ran unopposed and captured nearly 78% of the vote. He was inaugurated on May 8.

In April Intel Corp., the country’s flagship industry, announced the termination of microchip production in Costa Rica, though its engineering and design departments would continue functioning. Solís, however, was later able to win a pledge from Intel to expand its operations in the country. He also settled a national teachers strike and won important trade concessions from China. Among the year’s best news was the performance of the underdog Costa Rica national association football (soccer) team, which reached the World Cup quarterfinals. (SeeSpecial Report.)